Thursday, 5 December 2013

Man Utd v Everton preview

I’m really looking forward to Man Utd v Everton tomorrow
night. I think it’ll be a cracking game and it’s so well poised. Everton are,
all of a sudden, on fire going forward with 7 goals in their last two games,
including a 4-0 win over Stoke. Whereas Man Utd are also scoring goals but
conceding a fair few too and not getting the required results. So the pressure
is on Man Utd to win this game. They have to do so.

Everton, in contrast, are going into this game with much
higher confidence than Man Utd- and much less pressure. I think that will
benefit the blues, but what is also exciting is that Lukaku, Barkley, Deulofeu,
Pienaar and Mirallas are all playing really well and linking up together. It’s
a real selection headache. Less than 2 weeks ago I wrote on here about how
Everton needed to improve their wide play and that their wingers were
underperforming. But not now, since then they’ve all stepped up and had a big
impact on Everton’s attacking play. Hence going from two 0-0’s in a row to
scoring 3 and then 4 in the next two games.

Man Utd have a lot more pressure on their shoulders and less
in-form attacking players. Only Wayne Rooney is on fire for them; none of
Kagawa, Valencia, Fellaini or Welbeck strike fear in you at the moment (if ever
anyway). Van Persie has a chance of returning so obviously would be a big
threat, but even still I think Everton have more creative power in their side
and have more in-form attacking players in the team as a whole.

I’m an Arsenal fan and Arsenal of course play Everton on
Sunday. In that Everton side I will be fearful of Lukaku, Deulofeu, Barkley,
whichever one of Mirallas or Pienaar plays and even Coleman provides a
concerning threat. Whereas when we played Man Utd a few weeks ago, it was just
Rooney and Van Persie. Yes, two special players and better than any of
Everton’s individual players currently, but when you look at who’s getting the
ball to them there is no concern there.

Yes Man Utd won but they only had two shots on target the
whole game, they won because of their defensive organisation, not through creating
chances for Van Persie and Rooney or any great attacking threat. Man Utd won’t
have that park the bus mentality against Everton, they’ll open up more. So I
think the likes of Barkley, Deulofeu and Lukaku will have more room and more
opportunity than Arsenal’s attacking threats to cause danger and create
opportunities. The opportunity is there for Everton, I really hope they go for
it and attack Man Utd to seize that chance.

Of course it’s not all about attacking but is Man Utd’s
defence even better than Everton’s? Smalling, Vidic, Evans and Evra. Really?
They can be got at and aren’t as reliable at centre back as Everton’s Jagielka
and Distin are. I think what stops teams from getting positive results at Old
Trafford more is fear factor and Man Utd’s reputation as winners. It’s not all
about player quality of course, there’s tactics to consider as well. But I
think Martinez has proved himself to be every bit as tactically astute as David
Moyes is, if not more.